Basically Nonis bit the bullet. Pay him now, hope he has a good year for the next 3 years and when his production dips the cap hit won't be too bad.

Or he could have waited the end of the season, but if Loops went PPG again he'd be looking at upwards to 6 mil. Then again if he flopped we could have gotten him closer to 4. I think this is right in the middle. We'll have to wait and see how this contract plays out.

Personally, I like the signing. Hopefully he commits a little more to the defensive side this year.

Pretty much. It could turn out to be a bad deal, but thinking like that is a common fallacy that some posters have on HF. Basically Lupul had the leverage to earn himself this deal, if he didn't get it from the Leafs another team would have paid up. Maybe it will be a bad deal and you could say in hindsight Nonis would have been smarter if he passed on it... but in the present what does it say to your players if you tell last years all-star "hmm no, you had a great season and you fit in well with the team but we think you may fail down the line so we're not going to give you this contract"?

That's kind of a losing attitude, and probably a good way to lose Kessel down the line.. Signing him is a gamble, but you're not going to win at poker if you fold on every hand that isn't safe. You gotta play with the hand you're dealt.